1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a surgical stapling apparatus and, more particularly, to a surgical stapling apparatus including a detachable surgical buttress for an anvil and a staple cartridge.
2. Background of Related Art
Surgical stapling instruments that are used to sequentially or simultaneously apply one or more rows of fasteners to join segments of body tissues are well known in the art. The fasteners are typically in the form of surgical staples but two part polymeric fasteners can also be utilized. Such devices generally include a pair of jaws to clamp therebetween the body tissues to be joined. Typically, one of the jaw members includes a staple cartridge which accommodates a plurality of staples arranged in at least two lateral rows while the other jaw member has an anvil that defines a surface for forming the staple legs as the staples are driven from the staple cartridge.
When the stapling instrument is actuated, longitudinally translating cams contact staple drive members in one of the jaws which in turn acts upon staple pushers to sequentially or simultaneously eject the staples from the staple cartridge. A blade can travel between the staple rows to longitudinally cut and/or open the stapled tissue between the rows of staples. Such instruments are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,079,606 and 3,490,675.
When stapling relatively thin or fragile tissues, it is important to effectively seal the staple line against air or fluid leakage. Additionally, it is often necessary to reinforce the staple line against the tissue to prevent tears in the tissue or pulling of the staples through the tissue. One method of preventing tears or pull through involves the placement of a biocompatible fabric reinforcing material, or a “buttress,” between the staple and the underlying tissue. In this method, a layer of buttress material is placed against the tissue and the tissue is stapled in conventional manner. In more recent methods, the layer of buttress is positioned on the stapling instrument itself prior to stapling the tissue. Some surgical staplers utilize fasteners or clips to temporarily connect buttress material to each of the jaws of the staplers, i.e., one disposed on the staple cartridge assembly and the other on the anvil assembly.
WO 2008/109125 discloses a surgical stapling apparatus that includes a cartridge assembly, an anvil assembly, and a surgical buttress releasably secured by an anchor. The anchor releases the surgical buttress during firing of the stapling apparatus.
It is a desire of the present application to provide surgical stapling apparatus with a surgical buttress secured thereto in a manner that minimizes shifting of the surgical buttress, and tearing or other damage to the surgical buttress during assembly. It would also be desirable to provide a single profile buttress that can be used on a surgical staple cartridge assembly and/or a surgical anvil cartridge assembly, as well as cartridge and anvil assemblies of different sizes. Accordingly, it is an object of this disclosure to meet the aforementioned desires.